Paula Deen’s name is synonymous with Southern cooking. Having said that, the celebrity chef has come a long way from being thought of as someone who can eat a butter popsicle. Those who have seen her shows know that food is sometimes second paula deen sweet potato bread what Deen has to say about her private life and Southern culture.
And while food is what she is known for, Deen’s story goes beyond her skills in the kitchen. It’s also about her struggle to overcoming loss, fight phobias, and learn the ropes of survival. Ever since, she has been slowly and carefully reclaiming the love of her fans. Here’s how Paula Deen has been turning heads with her years-long transformation.
As a child, Deen remembers hanging out at a drive-in theatre called Arctic Bear that had separate water fountains and toilets for “colored” and “white” patrons. Born on January 19, 1947, Deen’s childhood and teen years coincided with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Albany, Georgia, where Deen was born and raised, saw demonstrations, campaigns, and arrests during this time. When she was in high school, her class was the only one that had integrated black students in that area, back in 1965. This was soon after the Albany Movement of 1961 that called to end desegregation.
Paula Deen was a ‘senior superlative’ at Albany High School, a title that 10 of the most popular boys and girls are conferred with at the time of their graduation. Deen recalls that she was a “social butterfly”, but confesses quite unhesitantly that she flunked algebra about three times. When she was in her late teens, Deen wrote that her dad wanted her to be a dental hygienist. Deen wanted to be a model. In fact, she applied to a modeling school and got in without her parents’ knowledge. However, her parents would hear nothing of her traveling alone and pursuing a career in modeling.
So, she decided to get married. Something inside Paula Deen snapped when her dad passed away a year after she got married. The night my daddy died, I had to sleep between my husband and my mother in the same bed,” she told Oprah Winfrey. That fear made her incapable of stepping out even for mundane errands like getting groceries. Some days, I could get to the supermarket, but I could never go too far inside,” she told The New York Times. The only alternative was to immerse herself in cooking.